Sharp rise in online travel booking in China

China's online travel booking sector has seen a sharp rise in recent years. According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), 30 million travelers made an online travel booking in 2009, up almost 78% year on year.

Despite the recession, the Chinese are still making trips abroad. In June last year, Nielsen reported that 85% would "definitely" or "probably" take a trip out of the country in the coming year.

In their 2009 China Outbound Travel Monitor (.pdf), Nielsen found that the majority of Chinese travelers turn to the Internet to search for destination websites ahead of their leisure trips.

It's not surprising, then, that 2009 saw a significant growth in online travel booking. According to the CNNIC the growth is second only to online payments (80.9%) and exceeds that of online stocking (67%), online banking (62.3%) and online shopping (45.9%).

An article on the People's Daily's website says, "As of December 30, China's web users has reached 384 million, Internet penetration rate has amounted to 28.9% and online travel booking rate has reached 7.9%. It is believed that there is huge potential for the development of online travel booking."